Jeremy Mayfield gave Ray Evernham his fourth win as a Nextel Cup owner. Credit: Autostock

Mayfield: Aggressive approach will continue

Jeremy Mayfield figured there would be only one way to get into the Chase the Nextel Cup.

He had to win Saturday night's Chevy Rock and Roll 400. Had to. Second place wouldn't do. And Mayfield knew only one way to win at Richmond. He had to go all out from the first lap to the 400th lap.

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So that's what Mayfield did. He drove his No. 19 Dodge as fast as it would go and didn't worry about the consequences. With a strong car and a little luck, Mayfield's tactic worked.

He won the race and secured a spot in the Chase. Now, he's ninth in the points, and because of the new system for determining the champion, Mayfield is only 40 behind leader Jeff Gordon.

"That's all I thought about all week," Mayfield said. "We had to win Richmond. I think all the guys thought that, and the pit crew thought it.

"When you have that going on, that kind of mentality, it just shows right there what a bunch of guys can do when they set their hearts and minds to it.

"We didn't make any changes (to a struggling pit crew) and they came back and had great stops all night Saturday night, and the car was flawless. (Crew chief) Kenny (Francis) made great calls. You could tell everybody felt the same way I did during the week, and it paid off."

You get one guess as to how Mayfield and his team will approach the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

"We came in the last week with a no-holds-barred attitude," Mayfield said. "We didn't even look at it like a points race. We couldn't. It was over then. The points racing and being conservative was over. I think that's the approach we're going to take every week.

"We're going to run these guys as hard as we can run 'em. The pit crew wants to have better stops than anybody on pit road.

"They're going to work out harder every week, and I'm going to do the same. We're going to go all out every week and not even worry about the points. We're going to win every race and then go from there."

That kind of approach could serve Mayfield well. As an underdog, Mayfield could sneak up on the other nine teams.

"We have nothing to lose and everything to gain," Mayfield said. "If we finish ninth, eighth, seventh, sixth, anywhere, we have nothing to lose.

"To be in that situation, we can gain experience of being in the championship hunt, gain experience of winning one race, now we're trying to win more.

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"We're going to run as hard as we can possibly run for 10 weeks, whatever we've got to do. It's going to be from the time it goes green until the checkered.

"I know everybody says that and they're going to be doing the same, but a lot of guys are going to be points racing also, and we're not going to be doing that."

The plan to go all-out at every race is bolstered by confidence and momentum gained from winning at Richmond. Now, Mayfield's crew not only thinks it can run well and win, it knows it can.

"We've got not only momentum, but the 19 team just won their first race," Mayfield said. "A lot of guys on that team have never been to Victory Lane. Now all those guys know what it's all about. They know what it feels like and they know they can do it.

"I feel like it was the turning point of that race team, probably the biggest turning point ever. If you remember a year ago, Richmond was a huge turning point (when Mayfield finished second to Ryan Newman) and now a year later we win the race.

"I believe we've definitely got an advantage over the field because we're just now beginning and they've won, they're already in their own rut and we're into the part we've never been before."

Will it be enough for Mayfield and his team to pull off an upset and win the Nextel Cup championship? Time will tell, but Mayfield vows to go down the only way he knows: fighting.

"You can't worry about where you're at in the points," Mayfield said. "You've got to just run as hard as you can and let the points fall as they may."